Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie announced the addition of three attorneys as associates at the firm’s Denver office. Aurora Barnes, Megan Cunningham Fugier and Stephen Hennessy will practice in the area of business litigation.
Barnes’ practice focuses on complex commercial disputes including insurance, real property, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and constitutional appellate work. She served as a judicial intern for Magistrate Judge Kristen Mix in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado and interned under 2nd District Judge Michael Vallejos.
Barnes received a law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and bachelor’s degrees from DU.
Fugier’s practice focuses on eminent domain and land use, risk management and insurance, including class actions and first-party bad faith.
Prior to joining Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie, she was a teaching assistant for legal profession coursework and a participant in the Hale Moot Court Honors Program at the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law. She received a law degree from the USC, Gould School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Loyola Marymount University.
Hennessy’s litigation practice focuses on complex commercial disputes including breach of contract, bad faith, breach of fiduciary duty and bankruptcy. He interned for Judge Christine Arguello in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. He received a law degree from the University of Colorado Law School and a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University.
Board Appointments
Merchant & Gould patent agent Nobu Yoda was elected president of the Japan America Society of Colorado, a nonprofit organization that helps expand people-to-people relationships between Colorado and Japan through business, education and cultural opportunities.
Yoda was elected to a two-year term, which will begin on Jan. 1. As president, he will be the primary liaison between the board and the organization’s staff members.
Originally from Japan, Yoda is fluent in Japanese at a native level. He is a patent agent at Merchant & Gould’s Denver office and works in the computer systems, telecommunications and software fields and has drafted patent applications for operating systems, software middleware and applications, Voice-over-IP, network security and management, web services, mobile wireless communications and image processing. Yoda is listed as an inventor on over 40 patents globally.
Prior to his recent election as president, he served as a board member of the Japan America Society of Colorado. In addition, he volunteers with the Japanese Business Association of the Rockies and the Colorado Japanese School.
Yoda is enrolled as a law student in a part-time J.D. program at the DU Sturm College of Law.
Judicial Announcements
Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Coats on Dec. 3 appointed District Court Judge Leslie Gerbracht to serve as chief judge of the 3rd Judicial District.
Gerbracht replaces Judge Claude Appel, who will retire from the bench on Jan. 8, after serving as a judge in the 3rd Judicial District for nearly 34 years. Gerbracht’s appointment is effective Jan. 8.
Gerbracht was sworn in as a district court judge in January 2007. Prior to her appointment, she was a deputy public defender from 1995 to 2005 and was in private practice in Trinidad from 2005 to 2007. She received a bachelor’s degree from Sangamon State University in Springfield, Illinois, and received a law degree from Southern Illinois University Law School in Carbondale, Illinois, in 1997. She began a truancy prevention program and GED completion program in district court.
As chief judge, Gerbracht will serve as the administrative head of the 3rd Judicial District, responsible for appointing the court executive, chief probation officer and clerk of court, assisting in the personnel, financial and case-management duties of the district and seeing that the business of the courts is conducted efficiently and effectively.